In brief
- Variation pricing works when a measured build-up of labour, plant and material backs every extra work instruction before the work starts.
- A pricing gap can take the form of verbal instructions, daywork records that do not reconcile with measured work, or build-ups missing after the work is done; check the records on your own project.
- Agree how new items are priced in the contract, then use a one-page variation register on site to test whether the records chain from instruction to signed price.
Contents
Variation pricing in Hargeisa turns on one discipline: converting an extra work instruction into a measured, signed item before the work is done. The work gets built. The money does not get agreed. When nobody can measure, build up or negotiate the extra item, it can harden into an unresolved extra work cost that surfaces late in the project. Confirm how your own records handle this.
What does the pricing gap look like on site?
A pricing gap can take the form of extra work done on a verbal instruction, with no build-up of labour, plant, material and time behind it. A supervisor points at an unrecorded step: extra depth for a sump, a deeper trench for a service run, a switched block type, a longer lintel. The event gets photographed but not costed. The client or quantity surveyor then sees a lump sum with no measured basis. Daywork sheets and measured records can drift apart when nobody reconciles them. These are possible forms, not a finding about any site. Open three recent variation files on your project and trace each from instruction to signed price. If the chain breaks at the build-up step, the gap exists on your job.
How does the gap become an unresolved extra work cost?
Unpriced work is not free. Someone absorbs it, and the argument can move to the end of the project, where the bargaining position is weakest. Work may proceed on an interim instruction; the quantity surveyor may be unable to agree a rate because no build-up exists; the client may delay sign-off until the final account. Meanwhile labour, plant hire and material keep running. If the extra work also involves depth, backfill or dewatering, the physical risk grows with the paperwork delay. Confirm what your contract allows before work starts. Ask whether rates come from a bill, a schedule of rates or a negotiated build-up, and which records the contract requires.
How do you close the gap before the final account?
Close it at the instruction, not at the payment certificate. Set up a one-page variation register on site: each entry carries a number, date, photograph, measurement and a short build-up of labour hours, plant hours and material quantity per item. The skill under test is measurement and build-up, not paperwork. At your desk, check the register against the instruction file and the build-up records for the same item. If the three do not reconcile, that entry needs to be corrected. Ask the contract administrator which clause governs new items, and ask the team to price a weather-related extra such as extra dewatering or a re-laid subbase. That exercise shows where pricing skill meets physical work.
What to do next
Take one live extra item this week and write the full build-up before the work is done: measurement, labour hours, plant hours, material quantity and rate. Submit it for written agreement and keep a record of the response. Then reconcile one daywork sheet against the measured record for the same work.
Frequently asked questions
Does Somaliland law set how variations are priced?
Ask the contract administrator and the relevant ministry office which rules apply to your project. Do not assume a standard rate exists. The contract you signed controls how new items are priced, and the quantity surveyor's build-up is the usual evidence.
Can a client refuse to pay for extra work done on a verbal instruction?
Check what the contract says about instructions and payment. A verbal instruction is hard to price without records. Keep a written register with measurements and build-ups, and follow the notice period the contract requires.
Local reporting: this article is written for building work in Hargeisa and Somaliland. Ground conditions, prices and rules differ between places; confirm the details for your own site.